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UK coronavirus LIVE: Calls for London to enter Tier 1 as Boris Johnson pleads for ‘careful’ Christmas

<p>A staff member pours a drink at a pub in London </p> (AFP via Getty Images)

A staff member pours a drink at a pub in London

(AFP via Getty Images)

Britons will face “cold, hard” months under coronavirus restrictions, Boris Johnson has warned, as he stressed that Christmas will be the season to be “jolly careful”.

The Prime Minister said it would take time for the bulk of the country to be inoculated against Covid-19, despite promising steps in global efforts to secure a vaccine.

The PM, who is self-isolating, made the comments via video-link at a Downing Street press conference with chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and Oxford Vaccine Group director Professor Andrew Pollard just hours after setting out his Covid winter strategy before MPs in the Commons .

No decisions have yet been taken on which tier London will end up in, but it appears the capital is headed for Tier 2. Kensington MP Felicity Buchan called for the capital to be placed in “the lowest tier possible”, stressing that as "the engine of this country’s economy” it should be saved from further suffering.